Midtown fiction haven to sell for $18M

Nonprofit library the Center for Fiction plans to sell its eight-story Midtown townhouse for $18 million, according to a petition filed in New York State Supreme Court.

The 18,200-square-foot building at 17 East 47th Street hit the market for the first time in 80 years last summer, asking $19.5 million, the New York Observer reported at the time. Now the organization wants to sell to a North Carolina-based company so that it can relocate Dowtown.

Because a nonprofit is involved, the sale requires a judge’s approval. The Clinton Hall Association of the City of New York, a non-profit organization for literary causes, owns the building on behalf of the Center for Fiction, and plans to sell it to Sun’s Acres LLC, a company that owns the Met Foods supermarket in Cobble Hill.

Should a judge approve the transaction, the Center for Fiction will use the proceeds to fund an endowment for the Clinton Hall Association that will help purchase a new spot Downtown, Noreen Tomassi, executive director of the center, told DNAinfo.

“This is very much a business neighborhood and everything shuts down at about 5:00,” Tomassi told the news site. “We’re hoping to find a more horizontal space that will give us a ground-floor presence and more foot traffic.” [DNAinfo] — Julie Strickland